guantanamo may hold all the headlines but all the interested it means people are moving their focus elsewhere so-called black sites secret prisons were established by the cia during its well publicized war on terror unlike the cause however these secret facilities were never publicly discussed by the authorities the us claimed they could hold prisoners outside the us because then they wouldn't be subject to the geneva conventions to international law and humanitarian law reports suggest such prisons were in existence from two thousand and two basically not long after the events of nine eleven the us government denied the existence of these prisons until two thousand and six now the only country in europe which has acknowledged the presence of a secret cia facility on its territory is lithuania and if you were to look at it you will you will see something almost a deliberate site except for the imposing fences surrounding it likewise a suspected secret prison in poland is believed to be located here apparently in

one of the most beautiful spots in the country according to various reports mostly from journalists or human rights organizations so-called high value detainees were flown in by the cia for interrogation at these polish facilities. i managed to get the records from the airport in germany where it's clear that they have learned an aircraft used by the cia very important evidence because until then everyone denied b.'s landings and reported different destinations of these flights to europe controlled however just like their american counterparts the authorities in warsaw have been extremely frugal with the details and investigation into the secret prisons has been dragging on for almost five years now but what earth during its course remains unknown therefore the extent of the investigations progress just like any information about the torture of prisoners regarding who what where when and how all of it remains a mystery and the investigation is rumored to conclude next month by the looks of

it whatever its outcome it may also be a state secrets and swept under the carpet britain which once boasted some of the best legislation in the world to curb homelessness now has fifty thousand people sleeping rough with the government ushering in public sector spending cuts in the age of austerity the number of homeless people is only expected to rise pretty boy who went to meet some of those living on the streets. it's freezing cold wet and hungry there's nowhere for you to go to dry off and no money in your pockets this street is all you've got and there's no one that will help you welcome to birmingham the case capital homelessness. remember right. there she said drop grandma don't have one. foot out well i mean you shouldn't be

home really there's a lot of people who called me a short time wanted me real rock carpark were reportedly. all over the place this is why god tried very. yes we do know here michael is by no means alone in fact the number of homeless people in britain has skyrocketed by twenty five percent since twenty ten reaching fifty thousand people in twenty twelve the biggest spike in the city of birmingham you don't think again people can see you could be walking past you can be sleeping next to warsaw. and the coldness is stupid specialist told me we had to go back for four days on the phone to its twenty one year old matt fled his family home where he came to blows with his stepfather he had to sleep rough before being granted emergency shelter in the birmingham hostel it's run by a charity that helps anyone down and out to find employment and get back on their

feet looking for work. on the don't know like job running from the moment trying to get it's time you'll second stay at the hostel in three years after growing up in the now to foster care he struggled to keep a roof over his head you've got to do what every types to find some way to snape find money. help and support it's a scary thing you know you still go face all over again there just isn't enough low cost housing available and with unemployment rising hostels just like this one desperately need to expand the figures from the local authority of people presenting as homeless having creased on average by about four hundred percent. for the growing homeless community squatting in one of the city's twelve thousand empty homes used to be an option anymore just before the winter set in

westminster upgraded sporting from a civil matter to a criminal offense projections that it would translate to more rough sleepers on the streets came true deprived areas. of people that don't have working. with it being such a one time any industrialized center working class families but those jobs just don't exist anymore so i suppose that the poverty is just sort of the poverty and the reason the reason big mix of paper in the population and expanding the housing stock isn't it reached the point where it's just spinning i can't cope anymore and with more government budget cuts kicking enough to rape many more persons are predicted to slip through the net as the housing crisis escalates. artsy birmingham . reportedly being held hostage for eight months by russian mafia an irish real

estate tycoon claims he was given a punishment he had never forget about what was carved into the man's forehead on our website. also a lot of the moment the russian football premier league's door course and the squad with what is said to be the most expensive transfer in the country's history discover who set to join some and friends at the club on r.t.e. dot com. but it will work as in bahrain so they're being targeted by the authorities for treating injured protesters doctors say the rich has been severe one of government insists is now investigating the allegations. looks at those at risk for trying to help. nada dhaif was among a group of doctors who were trying to help the injured during a protest in bahrain she claims that after violently crushing the dissent the all thora g.'s turned their attention to her and her colleagues who were providing first aid they deny. health care to the

patients and protesters. the doctors did not obey the orders for such. decided to punish those doctors i was taken to a place for ten days that i didn't know where it was. all that time i was blindfolded and handcuffed i was in a solitary confinement for back to twenty one days. and they would just open the door of the cell and beat me up and there was a member of the royal family who directly was responsible of my thought she she was beating me and she looked cute to me almost two dozen doctors were arrested back then this for the fuel the anger of the protesters and turned the hospitals grounds into the scene of the rally the sound money hospital is bahrain's leading medical institution and that's where most of the arrests have been made after those events it now looks like a fortress guarded heavily by the right police and not everybody can get in human

rights activists say if you had suffered for speaking out against the regime and decided to come here for treatment you could make matters even worse for yourself anyone who was injured from the protests they cannot go to the hospital because they will be arrested interrogated beaten and taken to the jail last year many protester and in jail where tortured insults and money we have a story and testimony of people and protester being tortured and the jail but in my country protester were tortured and so. britain not who was charged with treason and sentenced to fifteen years in prison before being acquitted because of what she believed to be international pressure on bahrain's government the fate of many other doctors remains unclear the person who allegedly tortured not and others princes. has been officially charged by police she denies all allegations against

her meanwhile the guy. woman stands resumed that the action is to convince the hospital was the right thing to do when and these doctors managed to control the emergency unit in the first floor of the hospital and started to perform political acts when a hospital is turned into a base for political ethnic work this is a real disaster we had an unbiased committee investigating the hospital eight condemn the acts of these doctors as. the case against one of the members of the world family may seem as an indication that bahrain's government has bowed to the negative global reaction with the doctor scandal being far from the only torture accusation c.c.t.v. cameras have been installed at all prisons in a move to become more transparent according to the authorities but with protests in the gulf states still continuing and accusations of human rights violations intensifying the opposition is still wondering what happens in the places where the cameras cannot see. reporting from the kingdom of bahrain.

you've been watching the weekly all through the break he's going to con talks to the former presidential foreign policy analyst hillary and flynt leverett about america's approach to iran that's after the special brand. i. speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's

all here on our team reporting. from the world's books specifically ip interviews intriguing story. lynn try. to find out more visit our big. government no longer represents the people. the people who are going to take. away our economic system currently.

i'm joined by hilary lever it flynt leverett former and lists for both bill clinton and george w. bush administrations two of america's most informed middle east experts their new book is called going to tehran which offers a way out of the current diplomatic crisis it's called why the united states must come to terms with the islamic republic of iran thank you very much for coming washington seems to be very happy with the sanctions there quickly the arena chrono me why should they change policies now why should they come to terms with iran sanctions are not going to work sanctions have not worked we've seen sanctions imposed on the islamic republic of iran for thirty two years we saw crippling sanctions in effect imposed on iran during their eight year war with iraq from one

thousand nine hundred ninety eight we saw at that time half their g.d.p. was a racist half of it and still the islamic republic of iran did not surrender to hostile foreign powers the idea that now that sanctions are going to force the islamic republic of iran to surrender to what it sees as hostile foreign powers and their demands there is no place for that in the history of the history of the islamic republic of iran and frankly there is no basis for that anywhere the united states imposed crippling sanctions for example on saddam hussein's iraq for over a decade killing over people half of them children and even then saddam hussein's government did not implode and it did not concede to the demands of hostile foreign powers it took a massive us land invasion to do that the ability to stand in the other side's shoes to show that you can do it is key to diplomacy i think you would agree with that but everything the u.s. has done so far showed you ran the opposite of that starting from the u.s.

helping get rid of their democratically elected leader in the fifty's putting the shah in power much hated figure in iran what can the u.s. do to. now to show iran that they respect their national interests the first thing that has to happen is this basic acceptance acceptance of these lama republic as a legitimate and rational actor. this is the model that nixon and kissinger used to pursue the diplomatic opening with china in the early one nine hundred seventy s. it's not their achievement was not that they started talking to. the united states have been talking to beijing for years but it was this very narrow kind of dialogue very focused on grievance american grievances toward china and what china was going to need to do to bring itself in line with american preferences nixon and

kissinger flip that on its head they said we are going to convey to the chinese both in words and in actions that we we accept the people's republic of china and on that basis the rest of these issues can be taken care of that's what enabled this dramatic turn in american diplomacy toward china that's what we need to do toward the islamic republic of iran to accept it and then to back that up with concrete actions in terms of rolling back covert action programs in terms of stopping economic warfare against iran but what are the chances for diplomacy i mean iran is surrounded by u.s. military bases by nato patriot missiles the they have to sanctions that are crippling the iranian economy it seems there's more ground for blackmail now than

for diplomacy unfortunately i think that is the american hope that we can still force coerced out that's what the united states has been doing really since the end of the cold war we have focused on coercing outcomes by as flynt said projecting enormous amounts of conventional military force into the middle east to course political outcomes and we would you know before one thousand nine hundred one we were somewhat restrained in doing that because of the cold war if we put in too many million many troops we were afraid that some. you know what so in a sense that constrained us and foresee united states to really rely more on soft power more on having a narrative after the class of the soviet union the end of the cold war we i think left the left that out we put you know under the table we focused entirely on trying to force political outcomes and what we've done in iraq and afghanistan has underscored the very important limits of that and i would add that libya we were able to take out saddam take out moammar gadhafi but what we're able to put in its stead what if everything fails what is your worst case scenario mr liberal and

which i think my worst case scenario is that the united states. starts another war in the middle east to disarm another middle eastern country weapons of mass destruction that it does not know. and that the damage that the backlash to this does to the american position and. makes how much damage was done the american position by evasion of iraq makes that will quite trivial by comparison that's my worst case. i want to ask you about the new face of the pentagon chuck hagel he allowed himself to say outright attacking iran is a stupid idea and i believe he also called for direct negotiations do you think we could see direct negotiations any time soon. ministration well he i think that the

former senator hagel has taken courageous positions on iran on a range of issues and i admire them and respect them and the concern i have is that he is being nominated for the wrong job to carry out those positions his defense secretary if he is a if he is if he's approved to be as defense secretary he will not be the person in charge of creating or implementing strategies of iran or any other foreign policy issue. he will be he will be at the defense department doing quintessentially defense secretary things in this environment which is to cut the budget and try to keep the united states out of another war now that peace try to keep the united states out of another war could have impact here but the problem is he what he could potentially try to keep united states out of another war without being able to either to offer a vision for another way to deal with this challenge the islamic republic poses a real challenge to the united states and a real challenge to israel in the region that challenges to significantly constrain

both the united states and israel's preferred strategies for the region which is to project force whenever wherever and whatever degree we want unilaterally the islamic republic of iran challenges that not with tanks so that they go and park their tanks in other people's countries they challenge that with their narrative they oppose that risk really at its core chuck hagel said some very unflattering things about the israeli lobby that they're quote unquote intimidating a lot of people in washington and also there to save american interests israeli interests if they conflict and that is a subversive thing to say here in washington could be a career killer. can you name some key points where u.s. and israeli interests conflict i think it is very much in america's interests it's not a favor to iran it is in america's interest to come to terms with the islamic republic to accept safeguarded enrichment of uranium as the basis for

a deal on the nuclear issue israel's ability to impose its hegemony in gaza or southern lebanon is not an american interest it may be an israeli preference it's not an american interests i think american interests would be much better served by a kind of rational. political settlement to the palestinian issue that palestinians and other middle easterners will see as legitimate there is no way that open ended israeli occupation of palestinian lands will ever be seen that way and i think that's you know very much against american interests i think in a similar vein it's what i would take us to some living to a plan laid out and i would but i would take it a little more broadly it's very difficult for the way that israel is structured politically for it to accept and buy into and support what i think would be an american interest which is that all of the states in the middle east be able to

have much more participatory political orders can support even more broadly beyond its borders because a country like egypt which i think the israelis see today is very much a threat in terms of how it's developing if it becomes any more reflective of its population's preferences histories interests religion is going to become by definition less interested in allowing israel or being ok with the policies that israel has developed to use force coercively whenever wherever it wants along its borders or with its within its own population palestinian population under its control when the problem is the united states bad. that and so this is the contradiction he was back at the same time it calls for democracy in all those countries and so that's what rings hollow i think for many arab and muslim populations is that it's not a real call for the by the united states for democratization what the united states is just trying to do is so chaos and civil war like we're doing in syria we're not really trying to get democratization in syria or political participation in syria

it's selling chaos and destruction i think that's how many people see it and that's how it is unfolding what do you think israel is going to do next what is their strategy with regards to iran i think they have you know more or less come to the position that if you was going to be struck it's the united states that's going to need to do it and so i fully anticipate over the next next year or so that prime minister netanyahu he and his government will be putting a lot of pressure on the obama administration that iran is approaching whatever red line that you know who. draws. its time for the united states to step up to the plate and deal with this problem in a decisive way and even if they don't succeed initially in persuading obama because they will leverage it to get more sanctions on iran to get other kinds of pressure on iran if they will try and keep iran. do you think president obama appointed

chuck hagel of the message to his throw that's difficult to say we will see but i'm skeptical that obama really is out to redefine to be america's relationship with israel and i would add to that in addition to the. point that we have the appointment of john brennan at the cia who i think is someone who the israelis are just fine with who will continue many of the covert programs of course our drone program but many of the covert programs that would be under his under his authority at the cia and that will be very much to israel's liking that will serve to undermine any attempts or any possibilities for a real coming to terms of the islamic republic of iran. there is an argument often made in washington that bashar al assad's fall would be a strategic victory against iran what can you say about an approach like that first of all at this point iran's most important arab ally is no longer syria it's iraq

thanks in no small part to the united states iran's most important strategic ally in the arab world is iraq even in syria you know bashar al assad is still there i don't think is going on is imminent and even if you reach a point where he might feel like he needs to abandon damascus or something like this you're going to still have big chunks of syria that are effectively under good control of his government under his security apparatus syria might at that point start to look more and more like a kind of. you know failing state with different regional warlords in different parts of the country but that is not a situation which is good for american interests first of all or a situation in which iran you know is somehow doesn't have influence or or an

ability to act in ways to protect its interests in the situation the idea that somehow we can just have these short term marriages of convenience to arm train and fund really in that lane a sunni islamist jihadist groups in syria in syria against the islamic republic of iran that just this time it will work and that somehow secular democrats are going to come to power yeah that liberal secular pro-american democrats will come to power it didn't work in afghanistan and it's not going to work in syria thank you so much thanks so much for coming q thank you very much. live.

live. live.

live. stream live. live . think you understand it and then something else some other part of it and realize

that everything is. welcome to the big picture.